PART 10

The Seventies

1970-1980

Naval Aviation began its seventh decade with the

United States heavily embroiled in the Vietnam War

and 1980 ended with carriers Dwight D. Eisenhower

and Ranger deployed in the Indian Ocean. The coun-

try had no sooner ended its long military involvement

in Vietnam than it faced a growing crisis in the Middle

East, a crisis that reached hostile proportions late in

1979 when Iranian hoodlums captured the United

States Embassy in their capital city, Tehran.

Throughout the 1970s, the American public became

increasingly aware of the country's critical dependence

upon oil from foreign sources. During this time, an

acute consciousness of the United States' position as a

two-ocean nation reemphasized the reliance upon the

U.S. Navy to keep sea lanes open and commerce mov-

ing unhampered.

For nearly ten years, the burden of the Navy's air

action fell upon the carriers and aircraft of the Seventh

Fleet. To meet this responsibility, naval air relied on

established weapons and material and introduced new

ones. The Walleye, a television-guided glide bomb

designed to home automatically on target, was tested

successfully in combat. Helicopters flexed their muscle

in a combat role and served also as aerial tanks and

flying freight trains. Land-based patrol aircraft, in

Operation Market Time, scoured the coastline of South

Vietnam to search out enemy infiltrating vessels and

locate surface forces for interception. In 1972,

Operations Linebacker I and II waged heavy interdic-

tion and bombing campaigns against North Vietnam.

Aircraft of the Seventh Fleet performed the most

extensive aerial mining operation in history, blockad-

ing the enemy's main avenues of supply. An uneasy

truce finally resulted in the United States disengaging

itself from Vietnam in 1973. Two years later, Naval

Aviation was called upon to assist in the evacuation of

refugees fleeing the North Vietnamese takeover of

South Vietnam. In 1979, naval air power helped rescue

thousands of Indochinese who took to the high seas

in poor vessels to escape mounting tyranny in their

homelands.

Against the unrelenting need for vigilance was pitted

a declining material inventory and difficulty in retaining

experienced personnel. Much of the 1970s can hardly

be called bountiful for Naval Aviation. As the surplus of

equipment left over from Vietnam eroded through con-

stant use, money for replenishment was not abundant.

The high inflation rate that beset the world's industrial

nations plagued defense budgets and drove downward

the purchasing power of military salaries. Nevertheless,

Naval Aviation continued to make headway in the

areas of research and development.

Early in the 1970s, the Navy introduced the F-14

Tomcat, and the Marine Corps accepted the AV-8

V/STOL Harrier. At the end of the decade, a new fight-

er/attack aircraft, the F/ A-18 Hornet, was undergoing

flight trials. The submarine threat was confronted by

the addition to the fleet of the light airborne multipur-

pose system (LAMPS) which combined shipboard elec-

tronics with the SH-2D helicopter. As 1980 drew to a

close, the latest LAMPS version was under test in a

new Navy airframe, the SH-60B Seahawk. Also at

decade's end, the Navy's latest heavy-lift helicopter,

the CH-53E, was ready for acceptance by a Marine

Corps squadron. Airframes were not the only items

which saw advance. The fields of electronics, missiles,

and crew systems also benefited from improvements.

Finally it should be mentioned that during the 1970s

two nuclear supercarriers, Nimitz and Dwight D.

Eisenhower were commissioned; a third, Carl Vinson,

was launched.

As Naval Aviation began its eighth decade, there

was no serious reason to doubt that its superior record

of achievement would endure. Aircraft, integrated with

the fleet, would continue to provide the United States

with the strongest naval power on earth.

1970

15 January Bennington, Valley Forge and

Tallahatchie County were decommissioned. As a part

of the continuing ship reduction program, this was fol-

lowed by the decommissioning of Princeton on 13

February, Hornet on 26 June and Yorktown on 27

June. Earmarked in 1970 for decommissioning in 1971

were Bon Homme Richard and Shangri-La.

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